Quick Fireplace Transformation!

When we first moved into this house, the wood-burning fireplace was “protected” by a lovely set of chain mail type curtains (I’m sorry, I have no clue what those things are actually called). That’s it. No door or screen, nothing. And since we’d never had a fireplace before we definitely didn’t have one of our own. C was just learning to walk at the time so there was no doubt in our mind that we needed to get some type of door for the fireplace. But have you seen the prices for those things??? They start at like $300! After moving from Hawaii to Missouri and then living in a hotel for almost two months, there was no way we could shell out that kind of cash.

So we turned to good ole Facebook, and I had only one goal: a set of doors that opened and closed. I was so happy to find a set of doors and matching tools for only $30! They served us well throughout our first real winter (Texas, California, Hawaii… yeah, haven’t had to deal with winter in a while). However, after living with it for a year, I knew I had to do something about it. To be more specific, I needed to do something about that BRASS color.



Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of gold. In a flower. Or a ribbon. Or my jewelry. But in my home décor it has NO PLACE. So what to do? We’d already established that custom doors were ridiculously out of our budget for a while. Finally it occurred to me.


Spray paint.

Duh.

After an unsuccessful searching Lowes for a spray paint meant to withstand high temps, I decided to try our local fireplace store. Definitely should have gone there first!



Now to get started! I hauled the door and the tools out to the back porch and proceeded to clean and give them a light sanding (to help the spray paint adhere to the smooth metal). I was pleasantly surprised to discover that all the tools completely came apart, making it much easier to clean and spray paint (um… please ignore the chipping paint on the deck, that is definitely a “to do” on our list)!



Next I taped off both sides of the glass doors. It took forever.



Then came the spray paint! I have a handy little attachment that turns a can spray paint into a spray gun, making big projects so much easier to do. They are only a few dollars at the hardware store, and so completely worth it.

After a lot of touchups, I was finally finished! Ready for the finished products?





WOW! What a difference, right? Check out the before and after:

Before                                              After

   

It’s so much better! Almost like getting a completely new one. I’m a million times happier with it, which means we can now put off buying a new one for a few more years. Bonus!

Have you ever given a makeover to something you hated and been completely shocked at how much you love the finished product? It’s so amazing to me how much something as small as a coat of paint can completely transform something!

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Mommy by day... Crafter by night
A bowl full of lemons